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17.15.2. Protocol Support

The Virtuoso BPEL implementation supports WS Security and WS Reliable Messaging. These protocols may be enabled and configured for individual partner links. The WS-Addressing protocol is automatically used when the partner has such capabilities.

The Partner link options are stored in XML format in the 'BPEL.BPEL.partner_link_init' table in 'bpl_opts' column. See the document format and table description below in this chapter.

WS-Addressing (WSA)

WS-Addressing is transparently handled via WSDL description and request of the partner(s). If the partner has WSA headers exposed then the corresponding operation will be invoked with WSA headers. If the partner uses WSA to call the BPEL service then the service will respond to the partner with WSA headers included.

The benefit of using WSA consists in transparently handled message correlation via "MessageID" and "RelatesTo" headers. Thus no explicit message correlation needs to be specified when the partner is WSA capable (see LoanFlow demo in tutorials to see how this works). Also when the reply is asynchronous the return path can be handled via the "ReplyTo" WSA headers.

As WSA has different revisions that are supported by different implementations (partners), the version of the protocol is configurable via wsOptions/addressing element (see below).

The 'wsa' partner link option can be used in API functions to set or retrieve the value of the wsOptions/addressing.

WS-Security (WSS)

There are several cases where privacy and confidentiality must be observed , this is especially true when business processes involve payment systems, personal information etc. In those cases a partner may, depending on Web Service policy, require secure messages (signed, encrypted or both). Such partners usually do not expose (for many reasons) in WSDL the WSS headers, hence this must be configured by the BPEL administrator per partner.

In order for the BPEL server to be able to sign and encrypt messages keys have to be uploaded into the BPEL user repository. This can be done with the USER_KEY_LOAD() function or using the BPEL GUI (Partner Link properties).

It is important to know the following basics:

  • The private key is needed in order to decrypt or sign messages.

  • The partner public key is needed to encrypt messages or verify signatures.

These keys have to be described in wsOptions/security/key and wsOptions/security/pubkey in the 'Partner link options' XML document. Note that in the options document are stored only the names of the keys, as the keys themselves are registered in the BPEL user key repository.

Note: Use the 'wss-priv-key' and 'wss-pub-key' partner link option in API functions to set or change the value of them.

The encryption and signing is independently configurable for outbound or inbound messages. This is settable via the following options:

  • wsOptions/security/in/encrypt - 'Optional': inbound message MAY be encrypted, 'Mandatory': inbound message MUST be encrypted ('wss-in-encrypt' option in API )

  • wsOptions/security/in/signature - same as encryption but for XML signature ('wss-in-signature' option in API )

  • wsOptions/security/in/keys - this is a list of keys (key names) that are trusted; only SOAP messages signed with one of these keys will be accepted. If this list is empty, all parties will be accepted unless signature is invalid or message can not be decrypted. ('wss-in-signers' option in API )

  • wsOptions/security/out/encrypt - type of the session key for encryption 3DES, AES128, AES192 or AES256. ('wss-out-encrypt-key' option in API )

  • wsOptions/security/out/signature - 'Default': the WSS default template (see WS-Security chapter for details), 'Custom': in this case 'function' attribute must refer to a PL procedure returning XML Signature template. ('wss-out-signature-type' and 'wss-out-signature-function' options in API )

WS-Reliable Messaging (WSRM)

The WSRM is applicable for those partners which can be invoked asynchronously. For both inbound or outbound (from the point of view of the process) WSRM can be enabled. The options are settable in wsOptions/delivery/in or wsOptions/delivery/out ('wsrm-in-type' and 'wsrm-out-type' options in API ) respectively.

  • ExactlyOnce - message will be delivered only once to the destination.

  • InOrder - messages will be delivered in the same order as they are sent from the script.

HTTP security

Some partner services may require HTTPS or/and HTTP authentication instead of using WS-Security protocol to ensure SOAP message privacy.

When a partner's endpoint URL contains HTTPS scheme (like https://) the request and response operations will be made with HTTP over SSL (HTTPS protocol). In this case no additional options to the partner links are needed.

In case when a partner service needs a HTTP authentication, the user name and password (for that service) needs to be configured for the given partner link. These are settable via wsOptions/security/http-auth ('http-auth-uid' and 'http-auth-pwd' options in API ) element in partner link options. Note that only basic HTTP authentication is supported.

Partner link options format

<wsOptions>
    <!-- WSA revision namespace -->

    <addressing version="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/ws/2003/03/addressing|http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/ws/2004/03/addressing"/|http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/ws/2004/08/addressing>
  <!-- WSS options -->

  <security>
      <!-- basic HTTP Authentication -->

      <http-auth username="" password=""/>
      <!-- WSS keys -->

      <key name="[Private Key]"/>
      <pubkey name="[Partner public key]"/>
    <in>
      <encrypt type="NONE|Optional|Mandatory"/>
      <signature type="NONE|Optional|Mandatory" />
      <keys>
	  <!-- trusties -->

	  <key name="[Trusted Public Key]"/>
	  ...
      </keys>
    </in>
    <out>
	<encrypt type="NONE|3DES|AES128|AES192|AES256"/>
	<signature type="NONE|Default|Custom" function="[PL procedure name]"/>
    </out>
  </security>
  <!-- WSRM options -->

  <delivery>
    <in  type="NONE|ExactlyOnce|InOrder"/>
    <out type="NONE|ExactlyOnce|InOrder" />
  </delivery>
</wsOptions>
	

Configuring the Partner link options

The partner link options can be configured vi BPEL UI (http://host:port/BPELGUI) or programmatically using plink_get_option() and plink_set_option() functions. It is possible to update the partner link options with SQL update statement using the configuration (described above), but use of the BPEL UI or API functions is recommended.

Dynamic Partner Links

The 'assign' activity allows partner links to be assigned values at run time. This means that partner links can be dynamic and that a process may call partners that were not known at the time of defining the process. Partner links can be defined at run time using the 'EndpointReference' element from the WS-Addressing specification :

  <xs:element name="EndpointReference" type="wsa:EndpointReferenceType"/>
  <xs:complexType name="EndpointReferenceType">
    <xs:sequence>
      <xs:element name="Address" type="wsa:AttributedURI"/>
      <xs:element name="ReferenceProperties" type="wsa:ReferencePropertiesType" minOccurs="0"/>
      <xs:element name="PortType" type="wsa:AttributedQName" minOccurs="0"/>
      <xs:element name="ServiceName" type="wsa:ServiceNameType" minOccurs="0"/>
      <xs:any namespace="##other" processContents="lax" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="unbounded" />
    </xs:sequence>
    <xs:anyAttribute namespace="##other" processContents="lax"/>
  </xs:complexType>
	

Thus it may keep endpoint URL, Port type, Service name and any number of implementation specific options under 'ReferenceProperties'. Also it may keep any other extensible elements and attributes.

The Virtuoso BPEL implementation extends the EndpointReferenceType with element 'wsOptions' under WSA element 'ReferenceProperties' (see previous section for 'wsOptions' element description). Thus it is possible to decide at run time to send a secure reply (WSS) or to use reliable messaging (WSRM). The following excerpt shows BPEL source that assigns WS Security options to a partner link:

      ...
      <assign>
	  <copy>
	      <from>
		  <EndpointReference xmlns="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/ws/2003/03/addressing">
		      <Address>http://securehost/myService</Address>
		      <ReferenceProperties>
			  <wsOptions xmlns="">
			      <addressing version="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/ws/2003/03/addressing"/>
			      <security>
				  <http-auth username="" password=""/>
				  <key name="myKey"/>
				  <pubkey name="serverKey"/>
				  <in>
				      <encrypt type="Optional"/>
				      <signature type="Optional" />
				      <keys/>
				  </in>
				  <out>
				      <encrypt type="AES128"/>
				      <signature type="Default"/>
				  </out>
			      </security>
			  </wsOptions>
		      </ReferenceProperties>
		  </EndpointReference>
	      </from>
	      <to partnerLink="service"/>
	  </copy>
      </assign>
      ...
	

To manipulate the partner link options and endpoint URL we can also use variables declared as element EndpointReference from WS-Addressing schema.